The zoom can be done also in 2 ways being through grf or data folder by adding a file without nothing with the same name of the one that keeps the views or adding one with the ones you want[at least it worked sometime ago for me].
The alt tab thing you say is because you're not configuring the roext good enough and screwed something. Every single friend and myself too, have been using that and have no problems with it at all. Even a friend with super bad net couldn't use more then 1 client in window mode and now he can use 5 without any problem at all.